artists
every piece has a story, and every story begins with an artist
CANTERBURY, NEW ZEALAND · CONTEMPORARY FIGURATIVE PAINTER
Laurie Roodt
Laurie Roodt is a Canterbury-based figurative artist whose oil paintings explore childhood, family relationships and the shifting social norms that shape our lives. Through carefully observed figures and quietly unsettling narratives, she invites viewers to reflect on memory, belonging and what may have been gained—or lost—across generations.
about
Born in South Africa, Laurie Roodt grew up in a rural environment shaped by family, horses and agriculture. Creativity was woven into everyday life through painting, weaving, sewing, knitting, saddle making and classical-car restoration, while music and ballet offered further early encounters with artistic expression.
Laurie’s first career was in accounting and auditing. She completed a Bachelor of Accounting Science through the University of South Africa while working full-time and undertaking her articles of clerkship—a demanding path requiring determination and perseverance within what was then largely considered a man’s world.
Her focus gradually shifted towards raising and educating her family. During the 24 years she spent homeschooling her children, Laurie completed a Diploma in Interior Design and began taking informal art lessons, first developing her drawing skills before moving into watercolour.
Quilting became another important creative outlet during these years. Its practicality allowed Laurie to work alongside her children at the same table, while fabric offered a rich way to explore composition, colour and texture. These experiences continued to inform her visual sensitivity as life eventually brought her family to New Zealand.
Laurie later completed a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing through the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Today, she works primarily in oil on aluminium, with the human figure at the centre of her practice.
Her body of work Kinder Tribe considers childhood across different decades, examining how social expectations, freedoms and family relationships have changed over time. Images that initially appear nostalgic often carry deeper questions: What has shaped our understanding of childhood? Why have certain ways of living disappeared? And has every change necessarily been for the better?
Sibling relationships are another recurring thread. As some of the longest relationships we experience, they can shape memory, identity and belonging in ways that remain with us throughout our lives. Yet Laurie leaves each painting open to interpretation—some works speak of sisterhood, some of nostalgia, and others of people or experiences that remain just beyond the picture plane.
Laurie has exhibited throughout New Zealand and in San Francisco. She has been selected as a finalist in the Adam Portraiture Award and the international BoldBrush Painting Competition.
Her paintings invite us to look beyond the apparent familiarity of family photographs and remembered scenes, allowing the past to become a space for questioning the present.
Because childhood may pass, but the relationships, freedoms and uncertainties that formed it continue to shape who we become.
Laurie Roodt
A child crouches beneath a soft lilac sky, reaching towards a flutter of delicate, colourful shapes.
In Flutterby, Laurie Roodt captures a moment of childhood curiosity. A teal jersey, patterned trousers and warm red shoes contrast with pale yellow ground, while the child’s shadow stretches across the foreground. Leaf-like forms drift through the air and gather in a narrow crevice beneath the outstretched hand.
Laurie’s Kinder Tribe body of work explores childhood, memory and changing social norms. Here, the absorbed posture and unexpected floating shapes suggest a world shaped by imagination, leaving space for viewers to recall their own moments of discovery.
This painting would bring warmth and narrative interest to a living room, bedroom or reading nook, with its soft pinks, lilacs and deeper teal complementing timber and neutral interiors.
Curious · Nostalgic · Imaginative
Oil on aluminium · 81.5 cm wide × 50.5 cm high · 2026
Some room images show Flutterby alongside another work by Laurie Roodt. Each artwork is sold individually. Ready to hang